Bloviations

Another short week without any recreation rides…But it was far from boring…

It was warm this week…So warm that I only needed to wear shorts and a long-sleeved shirt Monday and riding shorts and wind-pants with long-sleeved shirts Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.

Warmth doesn’t mean the week was perfect, though, as it rained pretty hard on Wednesday and Thursday. So hard, in fact, my brake issues got dramatically, and suddenly, worse. On Thursday, as I was riding to the Habitat for Humanity ReStore for a new-to-us couch, I couldn’t come to a non-foot-on-the-pavement stop. That bothered me so badly that AM delivered me to work and picked me up after. I abstained from work on Friday, partly to get the brakes fixed (which I did). The issue is apparently in the brake pads…While not worn out (I would’ve been bothered by pads that wore out at 1,000 miles), the pads weren’t in good shape because of the wet-weather. The rain, combined with road-grit, made the pad surfaces too slick to grip the rotors. A mechanic at The Bicycle Shop got me fixed up in short order, though. I’ll have to keep an eyeball on riding in the wet weather and may need to replace the pads sooner, rather than later, if it’s a wet Winter.

I tried zip-tying a small (and cheap) tripod to the stem for mounting my video camera. The idea is to record the commute and other riding around Jacksonville. All appeared fine when I departed, the camera was secured to the tripod which was secured to the bicycle. Unfortunately, the ride appeared to have shaken the camera too much and wouldn’t allow it to successfully write the video information to the hard-drive. I haven’t figured out a way to provide shock absorption, so if you’ve got an idea, share it.

I’ve taken to writing short notes after rides. Following are the notes made after a few rides this week:

9 Dec 08 – AM:

- Saw several deer next to fenced area on Camp Lejeune’s side of Rails-to-Trails path

- No vehicles blocking cross-walk at Camp Lejeune’s visitor center

10 Dec 08 – AM:

- Rainy but war - 63° (F) at 6:50am-ish

- Mt bike shorts and 2 long-sleeved shirts

11 Dec 08 – AM:

- Flock of pelicans at NEC (Northeast Creek)

- Dead deer on path near CLNC (Camp Lejeune) main gate

- Warm and wet weather

I rode just less than 50 miles this week. The day-by-day stats are below: